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Educational Philosophy:

The Purpose of Education

To spark the flame of inquiry that burns in the eyes of each student should be the intent of every educator. The purpose of education is to impart knowledge, the stepping stones along the path to wisdom. True wisdom comes from having the proper balance of the following in a student's educational experience: basic skills for the communication of ideas, training for future professions, critical thinking and problem solving skills, and a thorough understanding of what it means to learn, what it takes to learn, and the ways in which we determine universal truth.

Each child has the capacity to learn and a thirst for knowledge. A pedagogue in support of perennialism using progressivism as a means of delivery should aim for the education of the whole individual. Education should employ the senses. Using modern means to impart enduring truths to young learners allows the pedagogue to draw from the student's social experience and family backgrounds, to learn through discovery and meaningful inquiry, to use classic literature as a means to justify the progression of Western thought.

Progressive education's purpose is to concrete ideas through positive experience and application. The mind quickly adheres to and retains information from that which is meaningful, which is to say, information that evokes an emotional response. Learning through personal discovery and inquiry gives students the tools needed to solve their own puzzle of life.

John Dewey believed in education through experience and promoted a democratic learning society. Robert M. Hutchins, although he employed different methods, had the same goal in mind. Hutchins believed in "improving man as man" through intellectual power. A combination of these two would be vital to the production of a democratic society. That is, an asset to society driven to maintain democracy for future generations. Usage of the Great Books as a guide to the formation of Western thought would afford the student access to the patterns of past critical thinkers. Usage of the past's enduring truths with application for today's world presents the student with a key to his rational and logical man.

Education should provide an enlightened path; produce personal growth and lifelong inquiry in the pursuit of knowledge. To paraphrase Mortimer Adler, there are few truly educated people in the world. Due to this lack of truly educated human beings, it is necessary to fill our centers of learning with

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